'Game Of Thrones' Season 3 Finale Review: Winter Is Coming

'Game of Thrones' wraps up its third season and sets the stage for season four.

SPOILERS for the HBO show and George R. R. Martin's books follow.

Sunday night marks the season finale of Game of Thrones. It was quite an episode, too, though not as big and dramatic as its predecessor.

I found one scene in particular wonderfully satisfying. Bran Stark and his ragtag band of visionary misfits is sitting in an abandoned castle on the Wall, and the young Stark is telling the old folk tale of the Rat Cook.

In the story, a cook of the Night's Watch takes vengeance on a king by killing his son and serving him up to the king in a meat pie. For this, the gods curse the cook, transforming him into a giant white rat doomed to feed on his young forevermore, never able to satisfy his hunger. Not because he killed the king's son, or because he fed the king's son to him. No, he is cursed because he killed a guest---a crime for which there is no forgiveness.

This is something of a balm.

Last week's Red Wedding still stings. The murder of Robb Stark, his mother Catelyn, and their loyal bannermen and the capture of Edmure Tully, Catelyn's brother, all while under the protection of one of the oldest Westerosi customs: that a guest's protection is sacred. The Freys have broken one of the most binding vows known to man.

The season three finale itself covered quite a bit of ground, and pulling all the disparate pieces together is a tricky but important task as we ready ourselves for the long, terrible wait between now and the start of Season Four. 2014 feels like it's an awful long ways off, doesn't it?

Tying Up Loose Ends

In some ways, this episode was about home-coming, about at least some of these many chess pieces scattered across the board coming back together.

Bran and his friends cross paths with Sam and Gilly as one group heads north and the other south. I want to yell at the screen, at Bran, "Go to Castle Black!" Won't any of the Starks ever meet up again?

Jon Snow, shot through with arrows, finds Sam and the Night's Watch at long last.

Jaime and Cersei reunite.

At least a small part of Theon makes it home to the Iron Islands.

And Daenerys, the mother of dragons, Mhysa, finds another city of slaves to adore her.

Even across great distances, the pieces begin to move closer together. Ravens from the Wall are sent across the realm, and one reaches Stannis, imploring him to ride north to stop a growing darkness. The Red Lady, Melisandre, must see the truth in the flames. The five kings and their petty squabbles don't matter, she tells Stannis---the true danger lies beyond the Wall.

And so Stannis will ride north. Daavos, who sets Gendry free when Stannis had determined to sacrifice the boy, is saved from Stannis's justice when Melisandre, of all people, vouches for him. He'll be needed in the coming war, she says.

Thank goodness, too. Daavos is one of the only truly good people in the show---or, rather, one of the only truly good people left standing.

A Dance of Dragons

Meanwhile, in King's Landing we have another fantastic example of why Charles Dance was born to play Tywin Lannister.

News of Robb Stark's death prompts the boy king to tell Tyrion, rather gleefully, that he's ordered Robb's head sent to King's Landing so that he can serve it to Sansa at his wedding feast.

Of course, Tyrion will have none of it, and reminds Joffrey that kings have been dropping like flies lately. Surely all these threats on the king's life will come back to haunt Tyrion, but I do so love him for each and every one, however idle they may be.

Joffrey throws a fit and stomps his feet and acts every bit the spoiled child at this, reminding everyone loudly that he is the king.

To which Tywin intones that anyone who must constantly remind us that he is king isn't really king.

At this point Tyrion and Tywin argue a bit over what's important. Tywin says family, the House, the Lannister line. Tywin says it's all about Tywin and his own self interest.

The interesting part---the really important part---is what Tywin says in response.

He tells Tyrion that he went against his own self interest when Tyrion was born. He wanted to carry Tyrion out into the sea and let the waves carry him away but he didn't, because Tyrion was a Lannister.

Not because he is Tywin's son, mind you, but because he is a Lannister.

Is this just a refusal on Tywin's part to call Tyrion his son? Or is it an admission of something more---of some other reason why Tywin hates Tyrion so deeply?

After all, if any of Tywin's children ought to be the apple of his father's eye it's Tyrion.

Tyrion has a brain. He has his father's wit if not his cruelty. Tywin can't stand Cersei but he has a grudging respect for Tyrion. Yet he does love Cersei and he despises Tyrion. Why? Simply because he's a dwarf? Because his wife died giving birth to Tyrion?

Or is it something more? Is there more to Tyrion's birth than we know?

The Spider and the Imp

Then there's the scene between the Spider, Varys, and Tyrion's concubine, Shae: Varys tries to bribe Shae into leaving the city but she refuses.

I'm not sure I totally buy this. A bag of diamonds is a bag of diamonds, after all, and it isn't like Shae is brimming with happiness here.

But I do think Varys's admission is crucial: Tyrion, he says, is one of the few people who can actually do some good for Westeros, and Shae is putting him in danger.

Now, Varys is one of the most curious characters in the show/books because his motives aren't entirely clear. We know he has served in Westeros for a long time as the master of spies and on the Small Council and we know that he says his first duty is to the "the realm." What we don't know (in the show at least) is why this foreigner is so eager to protect his adoptive home. What game is he playing at?

I do think we get a better contrast between Varys and his rival Littlefinger in the show than in the book. Varys may be playing at some long-con game of thrones, but he's not a cruel sociopath like Petyr Baelish. He is kind to Sansa and tries to negotiate her happiness with Lady Olenna. He is kind to Ned Stark as well, and even helps Tyrion. He doesn't seem to much care for the rest of the Lannisters, at least not that we're aware of.

Kind to the Starks, and helpful to Tyrion.

Once again, I'm left to wonder: is this simply because Tyrion is a good person, or is there something else about the Imp that we don't know? Something Varys might know?

One of the other great moments this episode was---surprise, surprise!---an Arya scene.

Maisie Williams continues to pull of one of the best roles in the show/books like a charm, and her token vengeance on Twins men-at-arms was at once hilarious and a bit creepy. We see a side of the Stark girl that doesn't come out quite as overtly in the books: a girl growing ever more eager to kill, to become a killer.

Valar Morghulis: all men must die.

However brief, these scenes with the Hound and Arya are always riveting. There's a sense of humor between the two that offsets the tension and horror of their situation.

A situation they find themselves in thanks to the dirty dealings of Walder Frey---the new Lord of Riverrun---Roose Bolton---the new Warden in the North---and Tywin Lannister. "The north will never forget," Tyrion tells his father as they discuss the murders. Let's hope not.

Of course, the one running things in the north at the moment appears to be Ramsay Snow, the at-long-last revealed bastard of Roose Bolton, and our psychotic torturer of poor Theon Greyjoy.

This was actually an important moment in the ongoing trials and tribulations of Theon. I've bemoaned the amount of torture and the gratuitousness of it all in the past, but this time around Ramsay isn't the only one who finally gets a name. He gives Theon a new name: Reek. And the slow dehumanizing and transformation of Theon into something (and someone) else, continues.

On a final note, I found the parting shots between Ygritte and Jon Snow a big let down---an almost unnecessary coda to a poorly handled story arc. I'm not sure how much of this is the writing, how much is Kit Harrington who is one of the few actors in the show who I just can't buy in their role. Since I think Jon Snow is one of the most important characters in the show, this is a thought I try not to dwell on.

Ah well.

In Conclusion...

Let's summarize where we find ourselves as the season wraps up:

Stannis will head north to the Wall if Melisandre and Daavos get their way (and Melisandre always gets her way.)

Jon and Sam are both back at Castle Black, and Maestor Aemon has sent out the ravens imploring the rest of the Seven Kingdoms to come to the Wall and stand with the Night's Watch.

Bran and the Reeds and Hodor are making their way north of the Wall, seeking out the three-eyed raven (though we're still not quite clear why just yet.)

Sansa Stark is heartbroken once again, and whatever strides Tyrion has made with her are now almost certainly for nothing.

Arya gets her first taste of blood and seems to like it. (Edit: second taste. I'd forgotten the stable boy.)

Gendry is free, on a boat on the open sea by himself even though he can't swim.

Speaking of boats, Asha Yara Greyjoy is off to the Dreadfort to save her little brother.

Jaime is back in King's Landing, along with Brienne, and things are about to get awkward.

And the war looks as though it might just be winding down, at long last, and to the victors go the spoils. The Starks are beaten. Stannis is turning his attention elsewhere. Bolton and Frey hold the North and the Riverlands. The Lannisters, along with their southern allies, appear to be firmly in control of Westeros.

What could possibly go wrong?

Oh, and then there's Daenerys Targaryen with her three dragons and her army of Unsullied, marching across Slaver's Bay. What could go wrong, indeed....?

P.S. I was hoping we'd see Lady Stoneheart as well, and I'm a bit miffed that we didn't get Coldhands. Seems odd not to end on a note of magic and mystery.

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